Scottish fiction and the British Empire / Douglas S. Mack.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mack, Douglas S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--Scottish authors--History and criticism.

English fiction.

English fiction--Scottish authors.

Scottish fiction--History and criticism.

Scottish fiction.

Colonies.

Great Britain--Colonies--In literature.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

v, 247 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Scotland was an active - albeit junior - partner in the British Empire. But the poorer and more marginalised parts of Scottish society shared something of Ireland's experience of being at the receiving end of British Imperial power. This created a long-lasting, complex and eloquent debate among Scottish novelists on the nature of Scotland's involvement in the power-structures of British society.

Some Scottish writers, such as Sir Walter Scott and John Buchan, did much to generate and promote Imperial Britain's sense of itself, and these authors tended to be part of the Scottish elite. However, an alternative strand of Scottish writing was produced by authors with roots in non-elite, 'subaltern' Scotland - writers from the past such as James Hogg, Mary Macpherson ('Mairi Mhor nan Oran') and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, as well as present-day writers such as James Kelman and Irvine Welsh.

Douglas Mack argues that such writers actively challenge the elite's Imperial Grand Narrative and demonstrates that Scottish fiction was active and influential both in shaping and in subverting the assumptions that underpinned the Empire.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction: 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' 1

Chapter 2 Opening the Boarded Window 14

Chapter 3 'We Too Might Have a Story to Tell': Competing Narratives and Imperial Power 43

Chapter 4 The Journey North: Competing Narratives about the Scottish Highlands 88

Chapter 5 Telling Lowland Scotland's Story 120

Chapter 6 South Africa and the South Seas: Scottish Fiction and the Zenith of Empire 169

Chapter 7 Imperial Decline and Fall 204

Chapter 8 Postscript: After the Empire 224.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0748618147

OCLC:

60794433